Welcome to the inaugural post of Blockbuster Blueprint!
In this 1977 clip, the great philosopher of media, Marshall McLuhan, summarizes his biggest idea.
His ideas are even more relevant today given how much time we spend on media.
For example, the average person worldwide spends a jaw-dropping 11+ hours per day watching TV, listening to radio/podcasts, reading books/magazines/newspapers, or interacting on social media.
This is profound.
Put differently, media is central to the modern human experience.
We spend more time on media than we do with friends, family, food, or sex. And for many people, even more time than work.
Therefore, we should know more about its impact on us, and use it for the greatest good. More specifically, as thought leaders, we use media to share our ideas, and we use it to do research. So, the better we understand it:
The faster and better we can perform research while being less distracted.
The more we can choose the right media to express our ideas.
The challenge is that many of the impacts are invisible. McLuhan says:
Hidden aspects of the media are the things that should be taught, because they have an irresistible force when invisible. When these factors remain ignored and invisible, they have an absolute power over the user.
To understand the media's impact, we can't just pay attention to content, we need to pay attention to context. That's why McLuhan famously said:
The medium is the message.
Once we start looking at the water we swim in, we slowly see it, and the world changes. We see patterns that were once invisible. Or as McLuhan said...
Once you see the boundaries of your environment, they are no longer the boundaries of your environment.
McLuhan died in 1980. During his era, the ascending media that he critiqued was TV. But, his ideas can be applied to today’s rising and dominant form of media—social media…
What McLuhan Might Say About Social Media
As someone passionate about learning, I've been fascinated by the impact of social media on how we learn. My current understanding of it is this…
The underlying logic of social media companies is to do whatever necessary in order to capture and keep our attention—without upsetting readers, governments or advertisers too much.
There have been dozens of social media platforms and hundreds of features. But one idea has not only survived, it has become universal across all platforms. That is the algorithmic newsfeed, which has two components...
Newsfeed (stream of content units interspersed with ads)
3 Algorithmic Filters (newness, popularity, similar to our previous likes)
On the one hand, the algorithmic newsfeed provides endless entertainment. To succeed with the three filters, content needs to be entertaining in that it effortlessly keeps people’s attention.
On the other hand, content can be so entertaining that it becomes addictive and leads to the user to regret their time on it.
So what does this have to do with thought leadership?
If we’re using social media to research, need to be wary of what I call junk learning—fake learning masquerading as real learning. A world in which we “know about” a lot of stuff, but don’t understand much. For it is in the deep understanding of the topic, that we can identify, cultivate, and package rare and valuable ideas that rise above the noise.
I talk more on junk learning as a result of social media in Most People Think This Is A Smart Habit, But It’s Actually Brain-Damaging, which took me 100+ hours to research and write.
How To Overcome Distraction & Junk Learning
At times I've completely blocked social media, because it is so addictive and distracting. However, over time, realized that I was throwing away the baby with the bath water.
Social media is also a treasure trove—we can instantly access the interviews, speeches, articles, and opinions of the world's smartest, most interesting, most powerful, most wise people from all time for free.
So how do we get the best of both worlds?
Or as McLuhan said…
If you understand the nature of these forms, you can neutralize some of their adverse effects and foster some of their beneficent effects.
Over the 7 years, I've spent 100+ hours finding ways to maximize my learning and minimize my distraction on social media. I’ve used a lot of tools that showed promise, but turned out to not be super useful. What follows are the handful of tools and tactics that have worked for years…
Here are my top hacks and tools to make social media work for me
This section is a free preview of content that would normally be for paid subscribers only.
Block social media on your mobile phone. Over time, I’ve found that I do most of my mindless social media scrolling on mobile. So, around 2016, I removed it from my phone, and I haven’t looked back.
Delete social media apps from your phone
Setup parental controls (iOS) so you can’t download any more apps
Setup parental controls (iOS) so you can’t access to social media via your mobile web browser.
Ask a loved one to be the password protector so you don’t just change the permissions to allow social media.
Add your own skin on all desktop social media sites. Chrome apps allow you to simplify and clean up the design of social media sites.
Download the Newsfeed Eradicator Chrome extension to eliminate the newsfeed when you visit social sites. If you still want to follow people, you can organize them into lists on Twitter and/or click the bell icon next to their name so that you get notified when they post.
Download the Minimal Theme for Twitter Chrome extension to remove the trending and “who to follow” side bars.
Download the Distraction Free for YouTube Chrome extension to stop autoplay and hide the video recommendations sidebar as well as the related videos that appear at the end of videos. It also removes the grid of recommended videos that appear on your homepage.
Download AdBlock Chrome extension so you no longer see ads.
Stop following podcasts in your podcast player. Over time I’ve noticed that whenever I follow lots of podcasts and then see the newest ones show up in my podcast player everyday, I inevitably end up watching people’s newest episodes rather than their best. So, I no longer follow podcasts. Rather, I find the best podcasts of all time in my niche and then queue them using the Snipd podcast app.
Video Clip Source
Monday Conference TV Show (1971 - 1979) on ABC
The Medium Is The Message: Wisdom From Marshall McLuhan